Contrary to a common belief, Nikkatsu did produce a few dozen mainstream movies during their Roman Porno era. These included comedies, youth dramas, action films etc. Compared to the 1100 or so Roman Porno films released during this period, the number is of course very small.

Here's a list of films I can think of. It may very well be incomplete. I've excluded movies where Nikkatsu participated in production but would not be considered the main producer (e.g. Kadokawa's Proof of a Man or ATG's Distant Thunder). Big thanks to 'Maito Guy' at Rock Shock Pop for helping out with the list.

Reiko Ike stars in this Nikkatsu produced action film, which came out just the right time. Toei's Pinky Violence genre was starting to wane out while karate films were the new thing. Black Panther Bitch M was a bit of both. The film hit the screens two weeks before Toei's Sister Street Fighter opened.

Ike is a ninja trained assassin ordered by an invisible shadow organization to take out businessman Mikio Narita, who is protected by yakuza goons. Limited production values and some slow patches set this apart from Toei's best action films, but there also are some atmospheric parts and nice bits of ultra violence as Ike takes out her opponents using knives and sadistic martial arts moves. Ike was no karate pro, but stunt doubles and fun ideas like POV action compensated enough. Ike also looks absolutely gorgeous in her frequently malfunctioning blouse that clearly wasn't intended to be used while engaging in hand-to-hand battle.

Supporting cast is mostly Toei actors, including karate master Masashi Ishibashi, who has one fight scene in the film, and who also brought his acquaintance Gogen Yamaguchin in as martial arts advisor. Director Koretsugu Kurahara was one of Nikkatsu's rising action film talents from before the studio shifted to Roman Porno. Even during the Roman Porno period his films were often influenced by action movies (e.g. Sex Rider: Wet Highway, 1972). Bad Girl Mako (1971) and Black Panther Bitch M are his only mainstream action films.

There is a fun story in the dvd booklet about Ike's involvement in the production. One reason why she accepted Nikkatsu's offer was that she was getting a little bit tired of her "sex queen" image at Toei, and was promised that this would be a mainstream film with no sex scenes in it. Ike later found out the filmmakers had added a hotel room sex scene into the screenplay, and she got majorly upset. She had them change the scene into a non-sex nude scene and relocate it to a "safer location" on a rooftop.

Nikkatsu Noir meets Girl Gang Films at Daiei. Michiyo Yasuda, one of the studio's few female action stars, leads a group of three girls who make their living playing on the clubs. They soon run into trouble with the yakuza. The film has a phenomenally energetic opening with great music, fantastic cinematography and Yasuda kicking ass. It's just a shame the storyline gradually takes a more conservative turn with emphasis shifted towards the male characters, who do the dirty work in the climax. It's still a very stylish film with superb cinematography and amazing moments where director Akira Inoue sets scenes to a blazing rock score. The film also does great job capturing the streets and clubs populated by the lower class. This is a small discovery, although more noirish and down to earth than the likes of Stray Cat Rock that would make a passable comparison point.

In his book Gun and Sword, Chris D. calls this the first film in the Kanto Woman series. However, that is almost certainly not correct. Based on Japanese databases, the spelling of the title (hiragana instead of kanji) and supposedly different approach (ninkyo instead of modern) the other three Kanto Woman films are a series of their own, unrelated to this one.

The screencaps below are from a VoD stream. Kadokawa also released the film on DVD a few years ago (I have it, but I'm too lazy to take new screencaps, so these will have to do).

Robbery, Arson and Killer Convicts (Japan, 1975) [TV]
Strangely unbalanced prison escape film plays out like a jazz tuned buddy flick, except its heroes often engage brutal violence and rape. The contrast is distracting yet too weak to generate any kind of shock value. Truly bizarre, but not in an entertaining way. As it stands, this is another example of ninkyo film master Kosaku Yamashita losing his edge in the 70s. The film kind of works in the beginning until the viewer realizes there is little point to anything that unfolds on the screen. Hiroki Matsukata and Tomisaburo Wakayama star as the odd couple attempting to escape together. One would've expected a far better film from this trio.

Original title: Goto hoka satsujin shu. Third and final film in a loosely linked series of prison films, all starring Matsukata. The first two, which I haven't seen, were directed by Sadao Nakajima.

It's a very popular series, although I personally don't rate the films that high. The first film is a relatively entertaining and amusingly sexist action flick with ridiculous action scenes where the bad guys can't hit Matsuda no matter how close they are. The same problem plagues the entire series. The second one throws in more comedy and somewhat tones down the sexism, which wasn't a good move. The third one is more of an 80s style underwhelming neo noir drama with an uninteresting storyline and characters, and not nearly as stylish as its poster would have you believe.

Matsuda is of course the best thing about the series, and I wish he had starred in better films. He's got a couple of very good action films - Classroom of Terror, Resurrection of the Golden Wolf - but he became an action star too late, just when Japanese action films started to go down the gutter and it became fashionable to make story and character driven films even if you didn't have interesting story and characters.

HungFist wrote:
Yokohama Underworld: Machinegun Dragon is a pretty terrible action/yakuza/comedy, though. Chiba appears in it for about 3 minutes.

Sugawara plays his character with the biggest rubber face he's ever put on... beside Chiba's cameo, it features a small role for Kyôko Enami as well...and they stole "They call me mr Tibbs" theme music! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Mx4wqVXfk

Cool film, too, although part 2 is my favourite of the ones I've seen (parts 1, 2, 3, and 8).

I suppose this is the first time ever a Toei ninkyo film is released officially in the US? Which is kinda strange considering it was (domestically) one of the most successful genres Japanese cinema ever produced.

I think Twilight would go banckrupt if they released all 9. I don't see any problem releasing just one. It's not like the films are connected or feature the same characters. I do kinda wish they had released part 2 instead of part 1, though.

Arrow have revealed another of their upcoming Toei licenses with Kinji Fukasaku's Cops vs. Thugs 県警対組織暴力(1975), due in stores on May 23rd. Toei BD has been out for a while now (without subs, of course) and Arrow aren't adding any extras worth mentioning (does anybody really watch those "visual essays"?) so I won't be picking it up but it's a cool and stylish flick that very much deserves the wider audience this release no doubt will afford it.

HungFist wrote:Toei April. And before anyone asks, no, none of the three Makiguchi films are his (in)famous torture or action movies. I'm also disappointed Toei went the erotic drama path. Oh well, at least I can some some money in April... or rather recover from the series of bankruptcies of the previous months...

I've been wondering for a long time why this was Makiguchi's final theatrical movie and how it came to be that he only worked in TV (and one crappy V-cinema flick) afterwards. Well, a long interview (literally what it is called) in the Japan Cult Film Collection series' volume on Torn Priestess/Nuns That Bite finally answered that question. The reason is as boring as unfortunate: RASHAMEN was a gigantic box office bomb and the higher ups at Toei promptly decided that Makiguchi was better suited for TV. Never mind that a lot of his previous films were big hits for them. No second chances.

Not that I'm trying to deney that RASHAMEN is a disappointing effort. It isn't poorly made but after an utterly amazing opening credit sequence, the remainder of the film is a weepy melodrama about how much the female protagonists suffers from being made a filthy foreigner's mistress. It wasn't what I was expecting from Makiguchi and it's quite possible that Japanese audiences in 1977 had the same problem.

One of the few Japanese karate films made by some other studio than Toei, in this case, Shochiku. The film's production background is actually more interesting than the movie itself. The film was produced by Ikki Kajiwara, the author of the comic books Karate Kiba and Karate for Life, which Toei had made into feature films with Sonny Chiba. It was intended as a starring project for Kajiwara's brother Hisao Maki, who was a student of Masutatsu Oyama. The film failed to make Maki a star (for very obvious reasons) but he would later contribute to cinema as a screenwriter and novelist (e.g. Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A)

The film was shot in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand, utilizing many local martial artists. It's also spoken in various languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese and Thai. Unfortunately it's a pretty poor film with an unremarkable storyline about a Japanese martial artist (Maki) who convinced to travel to Hong Kong and Thailand where he fights local fighters. It takes about half an hour before anything happens, but once the film moves to foreign locations it picks up some pace and remains watchable enough thanks to a steady delivery of action. Most of the fights happen when Maki is ambushed time after another on the streets.

Maki is amusingly wooden in the lead role, especially as an actor. His fights suffer from the Steven Seagal syndrome where he barely needs to do anything but walk around and the opponents drop dead. Although there is certain realism to the fight moves, he looks surprisingly slow compared to the likes of Sonny Chiba. While martial arts aficionados may get something out of it, the film is solely lacking in the fun department.

The film was set for a R1 DVD release a decade ago but the company went bankrupt before the disc came out. Shochiku released the film on DVD in Japan (without subs) a few years ago.

Yes, this scene is ridiculous. There's a fight after the wrestler tries to hit on Maki's gal.

Toei villain Nobuo Kaneko in the middle. You know him from films like Battles without Honor and Humanity.

Maki

Hong Kong

Screencap makes this fight look better than it is

Thailand

Original trailer & teaser. Masutatsu Oyama

Ikki Kajiwara (left) and Hisao Maki

"The 3rd film in the Chijo saikyo no karate (The Strongest Karate) series". That's a little confusing since the first two are documentary films, and this is a work of fiction. Also, the title of Karate Wars (Karate daisenso) makes no reference to the Chijo saikyo no karate series. I think the ad team probably came up with that connection just to sell the film. I don't think anyone actually considers it a part of the series.